We decided to stay 2 days in Pakse and use it as a base for day trips to the Bolaven Plateau and Vat Phu Champasak.

The Bolaven Plateau

Our tour guide for this trip was a camp pop singing university student called Jack. He set the scene straight away by making the 'family' introduce themselves and then singing us a song. He did actually tell us some really interesting facts about Laos:

1. The 4 main industries are now as follows - Tourism, gold and silver ore, electricity (what!!!!) and coffee (sold to Starbucks according the the coffee king himself Mr David Fox).

2. Every Laos man has to spend at least 7 days as a buddhist monk before they can marry. Jack told us how his Mum sent him to the temple when he was 8 years old but that he cried because he was hungry and when the Monks refused to give him extra food he ran away (how Oliver Twist!). He will need to go back and finish his 7 days when he wants to marry so that will be.....never!!

3. He also answered a long standing question of mine - why do asian men have long thumb and little finger nails. David thought it was to eat rice (mmmm!!!) and I thought it was to clean their ears (mmmm!!) it turns out it is some buddhist superstition - a long thumb nail brings long life and a long little finger nail brings you money.

Anyway back to the trip - we visited many waterfalls, a tea and coffee plantation, a local market (how many flies on the fish..) and some 'ethnic minorities' as Jack called them. The first 'ethnic minority' we visited allowed the government to let us all ogle and photograph them in return for electricity. The whole group felt very uncomfortable wandering through this village and we really wished we had all been briefed better so that we could have taken some objects such as hair accessories, pens, papers and balls for the children. The most shocking thing we saw were children smoking tobacco through a pipe (see the photos). When I quizzed Jack on this he just replied 'Well at least it's not opium any more'...OK!!!

The next interesting ethnic minority we saw were located in a purpose built eco village. The village, as well as a couple of waterfalls, contains example houses of all the tribes in Southern Laos. The most interesting tribe were one who's women put elephant tusk discs in their ear lobes (a sign of wealth) and tatoo their faces (a sign of beauty!!). Their marriage ritual goes like this - it is decided that 15 year old boy is ready to get married so word goes out to the neighbouring village. The next day he visits the village where potential girls stick their hands out of little holes in the side of their house. Boy looks at all the girls hands and selects the one he likes best - that is hand, he's looking for hardworking hands! When he has selected the girl they are then shut into a tree house for 3 days just to talk and get to know each other. After three days they come down and are married.

On our visit one of the tribal women approached Jack and asked if she could use his mobile phone as she thought her house had been burnt down, OK now I have to confess this confused me - the women are supposed to come from a tribe located in the mountains a 2 day walk away from the eco village, so is it feasible that they have mobile phones? Anyway she took the phone and returned beaming with joy - good news it was her daughters house that had been burnt down not hers...a cause for celebration - I'm not convinced!. Her son-in-law had come home drunk and, in a rage at his wife, had decided to burn down his house - that's sensible!

After the eco village it was time for the journey home (luckily in was only a 15 minutes journey) where Jack did a couple of solos and then we did a kind of bus sing-along. Fortunately for us Jack had come prepared and was able to hand out song sheets so we could all sing along with him and his poppy love songs. It was very surreal but enjoyable. In fact we all got on so well we went out for dinner together that night.

Vat Phu Champasak

Not much to report here - it is an ancient Hindu and then buddhist temple which is now a UNESCO heritage site. It is very very slowly being restored by the Laos in collaboration with the Italians. The temple is on a number of levels and involves climbing up some very very steep steps. Going up them was fine but I had serious problems coming down. I have now come to the conclusion that I am scared of high, very steep, very narrow steps - in fact let's say almost vertical steps with no foot room. David claimed I looked like an old old woman as I was coming down them so slowly and bending my body and arms into such a funny position. I don't care what I looked like or how long it took me to get down them - I was at the bottom and I was alive!!!!